Module 1: Introduction to SEO
Introduction to SEO
This module covers the absolute basics of what Search Engine Optimization is, why it's crucial for any business with an online presence, and how search engines like Google actually work.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.
Breaking it Down
- Quality of traffic: You want to attract visitors who are genuinely interested in the products or information your site offers.
- Quantity of traffic: Once you have the right people clicking through, more traffic is better.
- Organic results: This refers to the unpaid listings on a search engine results page (SERP), which have been determined by the search engine to be the most relevant to the user's query. This is distinct from paid ads.
Why is SEO Important?
Most web traffic is driven by search engines. If your site isn't visible on the first page of results for your target keywords, you're missing out on a huge potential audience. Unlike paid advertising, organic traffic is "free," sustainable, and can build long-term brand authority and trust.
How Search Engines Work
To understand SEO, you need to understand the three core functions of a search engine:
1. Crawling
Search engines send out a team of robots (known as crawlers or spiders) to find new and updated content. Content can be a webpage, an image, a video, a PDF, etc. The crawlers start from a list of known web pages and follow links from those pages to discover new URLs.
2. Indexing
After a page is discovered, the search engine tries to understand what the page is about. This process is called indexing. The search engine analyzes the content, images, and video files on the page, and stores this information in a huge database called the index.
3. Ranking
When a user types a query into the search box, the search engine scours its index for relevant content and then orders that content in a way it believes will best answer the user's query. This ordering is ranking. Google's ranking algorithm considers hundreds of factors, including the relevance of the content, the quality of backlinks, page speed, mobile-friendliness, and user experience.